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About

Crowdsourced Cinema is a public art project of Northampton Community Television (NCTV), started in 2015, in which the surrounding community collaboratively remakes a famous film by dividing the film into about 40 different scenes, and then letting teams sign up for a scene which they can recreate however they like. They then stitch all the scenes together to create a full-length film. Their first film was Raiders of the Lost Ark, followed by The Princess Bride. In 2017, they created Back to the Future. As you can probably tell this year’s film is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!

What is the difference between Crowdsourced Cinema and Crowdsourced Boston?
Community media centers in the Boston area think this is a great idea and, with the encouragement from the original Crowdsourced Cinema, they teamed up in the summer of 2017 to recruit people in the Boston area to create our very own Boston area-based remake of a famous film! You can watch it on the next tab on this site. We call this partner project Crowdsourced Boston.

Each team signs up for a scene from the film to interpret creatively – it could be filmed with live action, animation, stop motion, remix, puppetry, and other visual styles. The only rules are to follow the same action, dialogue, and total running time of a short scene without using copyrighted images or audio.
We also invited musicians, composers, and producers to participate in creating an original score to a randomly assigned section of the movie.

All these scenes were then stitched together to create a full-length film, broadcast on each participating community media center’s cable channels, and distributed on the web.

Questions?
Please email Erin Kinney at erin@brooklineinteractive.org if you have any questions or would like more information.

This Year's Film

How it Works

TEAMS

A team can be an individual or a group of people in the greater Boston area, open to all ages and abilities. (This means anywhere inside the boundaries of I-495 all the way out to the end of Cape Cod!) You do not have to live in the Boston area to participate, but Team Leaders are encouraged to sign up for a membership at their local media center so they can have access to film equipment and editing software!

SCENES
Teams can check out all the available scenes any time before registration opens, and will then be able to sign up for a specific scene starting at 12:00 pm on Wednesday, June 27th. The scenes will be alloted to teams on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Please stick to the total running time of the scene you are assigned. Going over or under a few seconds is fine, but keep in mind your scene is a small part of a long movie. Make sure the beginning and end of your scene matches up closely to the original so it will transition nicely with the other scenes.

BE ORIGINAL
Go ahead and get creative! We ask that you follow the script in terms of dialogue and action, but your scene will be more entertaining the more creative you get. You can shoot live action, use puppets, stop-motion, animation, whatever you think will be entertaining and fun!
Don’t have access to a parade float? Try making one with a Lego set. We recommend checking out the past Crowdsourced Cinema and Crowdsourced Boston movies to get ideas.

No copyrighted images, logos, or music please. This includes the original soundtrack or dialogue from the movie, so please make sure you use your own audio.
If you are looking for music or sound effects, check out FreeMusicArchive.org or FreeSound.org or of course, make your own!

TECH SPECS
We’d prefer everyone to shoot Full HD 1920×1080 with a framerate of 24 frames per second. Shoot, Edit, and Export in the highest quality possible.
Most file types can be accepted, but we’d prefer an H.264 (.mp4) file in 24 frames per second. If you need any guidance with camera or export settings, please get in touch.

Questions?
Please email Erin Kinney at erin@brooklineinteractive.org if you have any questions or would like more information.

For Media Centers

Need a Pitch for your Executive Directors or Board?Ready to Sign up?
For each participating center, we ask that you promote this project on social media and with your press contacts with the Crowdsourced Boston brand, contribute at least two scenes from your community, and agree to help us recreate scenes in cases where teams drop out later into the project. Please direct teams in your community to this site and have them fill out the form to sign up (we’ll take care of emailing them their scene). You are also welcome to sign up to create a scene!

We will create a toolkit for all media centers to use, including a press release template, social media language and graphics, and more to help you engage with your community and recruit teams.

To sign on, please email Erin Kinney at erin@brooklineinteractive.org

Still not convinced? Read the reasons why participating can help your center:
~This is a fun and creative production to be part of as a team (enjoyable for your members, staff, interns, board, etc.).
It gives your current and potential members a creative, narrative, team-oriented project that doesn’t require them to come up with a brand new idea. We’ve seen groups of family members, teachers, social groups, and colleagues take on a scene!

~It’s an empowering way to activate people’s interests in the many facets of production, and encourages them to use your equipment and take your classes.

~You can leverage this as both member engagement and community outreach by hosting your own screening of the final project.

The final projects will be screened in Brookline on December 5th at the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre.

BIG’s Partnership Goals: Our goal to partnership with other community media centers is multi-purposeful.
Crowdsourced has helped our media center gain new members that wouldn’t have come in to make television programs and built the awareness of our brand. It’s helped leverage funding opportunities, and generate interest in our traditional and new work. We think it can be beneficial at your media center too. We believe a rising tide lifts all boats, so as BIG benefits from this project, we want your center to gain more involvement and support locally too. Also, it’s super fun!
We’re invested in your success! We’ll provide a template for:

-Press release template

-Recruitment flyer template

-Social media graphics/language template

-Screening flyer template

-Checklist for Project Actions

-A team call for Q & A

Sign Up

This is a fun and free community project!
If you are an individual or a team who would like to participate, or representing a media center that would like to create a scene or two, please check out all the scenes below. Registration is open now.
If you are representing a media center that would like to be an official partner in this project, please sign up here:

FBDO Scene 01

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Attend the Premiere

BIG will be screening the second annual premiere of Crowdsourced Boston’s remake of the fan favorite film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, at the Coolidge Corner Theater! We warmly welcome all our participating teams, partner organizations, and the entire Brookline and surrounding communities to come watch the truly creative re-make of the classic, cheer on your local filmmakers or friends, and celebrate community arts.

For participating teams – RSVP here
If you were directly involved in creating one of the scenes for our recreation of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (i.e. a team member at a partner media center, you helped direct, film, or edit one of the scenes, appeared as an actor in a scene, etc.) attendance is FREE. In short, if your name appears in the credits, it’s free for you to attend. Please simply RSVP here so we have a sense of how many people to expect!

If you have friends or family who would like to join you – fantastic! Please have them purchase a ticket here.

Post-Premiere Gathering
After the screening, we welcome you to bask in your Ferris Bueller filmmaking glory with fellow filmmaking teams and media centers and get yourself a snack or beverage at Hops N Scotch, just a short walk away from Coolidge Corner Theatre. This restaurant and bar has graciously reserved a space for us to gather. All are welcome, and can purchase their own food and beverages.